However. Here at CBL, we've used a few minutes of the holiday break (and a two week blogging break) to think about this question: How could we amend California laws in a way that kept them consistent with the will of Californians -- who are, let's face it, pretty progressive, pro-consumer and green -- while at the same time creating a level playing field for both sides in some of the litigation most often discussed in this blog.

Here, in broad brush, is what we are thinking. Most of the rest of the world thinks our Proposition 65 and its regulations ar the result of mass insanity on the part of California voters, and that our consumer protection and product liability laws were designed to drive all of those pesky businesses entirely out of the State, so we wouldn't have to be troubled by having an economy any more. But for better or worse, Californians support these kinds of laws. So reform, if it is ever to come, will come from tweaks that create a more business-friendly environment while at the same time allowing state citizens to keep their beloved precuationary principle, their relaxed class action rules for consumer litigation and their even more relaxed rules for product liabiilty litigation.

But in the coming series of posts, CBL will suggest a handfull of modest proposals that would, if enacted, make this state a whole lot more business-friendly while preserving the pro-consumer, risk-sharing, pro-environmental environment Californians seem to really want.